I got in a political argument with some clown on Facebook. He managed to retrieve my wife’s cell phone number and our home phone which is unlisted and technically just provided by our Internet company that we never use.
None our personal info is really available on Facebook and our profiles are pretty locked down, but he called my wife’s phone a few times last week which she has blocked and never answers. Comes up as anonymous on her id.
He tried our home phone 16 times which I ignored, everything stopped, he called again tonight. I decided to answer. He said he knows where I live my wife and daughters name, and our address. He never gave out that though and that he is coming to kill us. Said that on the line
I have called my local police department. But this is rural Nebraska they said they can’t do anything or have our phone companies run a trace.
Is there anything I can do to figure out who this guy is?
Home security.
Get a basic gun. Practice at a range. If you can afford it, invest in security cameras.
I guess you could involve a lawyer if the situation becomes untenable.
Don’t panic; theres a 99%+ chance you’ll be fine.
But don’t ignore the 1%. To all the “it’s just an internet troll” folks: see Jonathan Ross, where one such angry troll shot him dead, just because:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Joss
May he rest in peace :(
Shotgun to be specific
Jonathan Ross
Godammit you made me think I missed a huge news story
ITT: “Probably just a harmless troll”
In any other time in my life I would have agreed. However, the amount of delusion that has infected a great number of our populace means you need to take this seriously. A few more weeks of paranoia and propaganda and this person might just decide it is their holy duty to act.
Others have said arming yourself and increasing home security. That gets you to 50/50 odds in an actual confrontation, imo. Better than nothing.
Also agree with others that the police will be useless until it is time to draw a chalk outline around someone. If you can afford it, it might be time to get a lawyer involved. Rule of law isn’t completely dead at the working level and properly applied pressure from the judiciary might prompt action by authorities. At least it might force some sort of discovery that could enable additional actions.
Good luck.
Isn’t Frank Rizzo also one of the monikers used by “The Jerky Boys”? The prank calling group from the 90’s that used to make tapes?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jerky_Boys
Yup…
Frank Rizzo – an extremely abrasive, foul-mouthed blue-collar Italian-American New Yorker with bizarre complaints and requests (voiced by Johnny Brennan). Frank curses repeatedly at a potential employer during an inquiry about a job, and accuses the Mickey Mouse character at Disney World of being sexually inappropriate with his children.
Find out his number and start harassing him back.
Get a gun and learn how to use it.
But as other commenters have said, if he was actually intending on killing you, it’d be real stupid to call you in advance to say so. Most likely just wants to scare you.
Dangerous logic to assume escalation isn’t likely. If this person gets frustrated enough or gets radicalized enough OP will be first on their list.
I didn’t say it categorically wouldn’t happen, just that if that was the person’s real intentions then they’ve been very stupid about it. If you’re going to commit a murder don’t create evidence pointing to you. Like the other commenter said, a gun and self defence skills will cover you in both cases.
That’s where the first part comes in.
Though he should have said “get at least two guns, you and your wife learn to use it, and carry one even at home for a while just in case.”
I’m a she. But yes, I think arming yourself is a good idea regardless of the likelihood you’ll need it.
My bad.
But yes I agree with her (you) lol.
If he were going to physically harm you or your family in any way, he wouldn’t be harassing you on the phone. He’s legit just trying to scare you.
The best approach here is to “grey rock” him, which in this case just means not answering. You said you don’t use the home phone so just disconnect whatever device. You said your wife has blocked him so that’s sorted. Close your fb account or don’t log in or whatever.
Call the police and make an actual report to get an actual report number. Here any kind of threat made over a “wire service” is a crime. They may not investigate but that’s not the point, in the infinitessimal chance the guy escalates, you want some history.
Refresh home security without going nuts. Maybe a
ringdoor camera, make sure window locks are installed.Then just go about your life, but maybe avoid throw down arguments on fb.
Edit: don’t buy a ring camera.
Also if he is threatening a minor then that escalates things legally.
The report number is very important. Cops want to brush off stuff that involves protecting people in my experience, buy having evidence of all this is vital if he starts stalking or something like that. He’s unlikely to escalate directly to shooting, but he is at risk of escalation
If he were going to physically harm you or your family in any way, he wouldn’t be harassing you on the phone.
I think it’s dangerous to apply logic and reason to these people.
Please do not buy Ring cameras, Amazons vast surveillance network is a privacy nightmare and is also regularly accessed by ICE and other law enforcement.
Eufy cameras can be used with a home base and stay offline, recording to the SD card in the base. Or if you’re into it, there are many self hosting options that give you much more control and options.
Eufy doesn’t have a good track record for keeping things local or secure, despite claiming they are, btw. Source
This. This. A thousand times a thousand times, yes. Nobody should be blindly trusting their safety to Amazon, one of the worst abusers of trust and privacy.
(Plus they’re the most common hardware… Guess what’s getting targeted for mass exploits?)
Almost anything is better than giving Amazon access to your home.
Fair. I have a frigate set up myself, I just said the first thing that came to mind.
One day i will replace Echos with something better (still waiting for the Home Assistant devices to catch up). Until then, what doorbell camera A) has a battery option (rewiring isn’t currently an option) and B) will trigger Echo chimes when rung (really really handy when on the back porch or basement), C) are end-to-end encrypted (Eufys are NOT) without the manufacturer able to access the stream.when they choose
Just having driveway alarms can be useful. Battery motion sensors trigger a chime on the base unit. Enough to give you an alert that something needs to be checked.
I’m sure you can find this information in selfosted or other more tech oriented communities. Usually the convenience comes at the cost of privacy. It’s up to you if you want to keep the microphones in your home to turn off the lights and set timers. I used to trust Apple more and had HomePods installed, but everything has been sold on and I bought egg timers for very cheap that work just as well. (Granted Siri was never very capable…)
The police are useless
I’m sorry that you and your family are going through this, this is a genuinely terrifying situation to be in and you’re not overreacting by going to the police or taking this guy seriously.
Considering your logistics, you should look into getting a firearm if you don’t have one already. It also doesn’t hurt to put in a police report like others suggested. One thing I haven’t seen suggested itt: if there are people in your family that are too young for school/daycare or SAHW you need to think about having a contingency plan for them in case you’re at work. This could be anything from an escape route if someone gets into the house to having neighbors show up at a phone call (or leaving family with them).
You know the person’s Facebook name? That might help.
Maybe this? https://www.ic3.gov/
If you can DM me their name and any other identifying info you have (general city, photos, phone number, email address, social links, etc.) I can maybe provide quite a bit of info on them. I will not say how.
But I would also ask what the end game is here?
The end game is to make sure he’s not a threat. But he did threaten to kill my family. So if the law needs to get involved it can. I linked the Facebook profile. https://www.facebook.com/share/17tf1oeG8S/
That’s all I have on him
Unfortunately there’s no real way to identify him from the profile, but this guy’s almost certainly just a harmless troll.
His profile has zero identifying info and is clearly intended to be a harassment account. (literally the only post he’s ever made is a sign saying “Support Your Local ICE Raids”) A clear hallmark of a troll is just an account made for a clear and obvious purpose: aggravating you.
The name “Frank Rizzo” is the same as this Frank Rizzo who did things like urging supporters to “vote white”, decreasing black people hired as part of the police force, raiding the Black Panther Party, general police brutality and racism, etc. A common thing trolls will do is take the name of a historical figure that somewhat aligns with the ideologies they’re trolling about, and using that name or a variation of it.
If he actually intended to kill your family, he wouldn’t have given you advance warning so you could prepare, and if he was local and was just stupid enough to do so, he probably would have shown up already.
Trolls incredibly frequently will just say anything they can to make you either angry or afraid, death threats included.
I’m not necessarily saying there’s no threat here, but it seems to me like just a guy making a deliberately inflammatory account, using data brokers to get freely available information because you annoyed him a bit, then saying what he can to make you angry and afraid because that’s why he made the account in the first place.
Edit: to clarify, I’m not trying to make light of the situation at all, I just think personally this seems like a lot of troll accounts I’ve seen before.
It’s not entirely true that you can’t identify him from that Facebook account. It’s just really, really hard.
Facebook almost certainly knows who he is. Like specifically, name and all. Their data mining is VERY extensive, and he likely has other accounts.
Anyway, with a lawyer’s help, you can (possibly) get a court order for Facebook to reveal what they have on the guy. They certainly have things like IP addresses and timestamps, but they also probably have name, other associated accounts, viewing history across the web (from those “share with Facebook” icons/links, even if untouched), and hundreds or thousands of additional pages.
Is it worthwhile? Probably not. But it can be done.
I hate to say it, but I absolutely guarantee the law will do nothing but show up afterwards and pick up the pieces. If he does decide to get his fat ass off the couch and come get you, you’ll have to handle him yourself.
Unfortunately I can’t do much with just that.
Keep a gun close, add some cameras, but otherwise this person is probably just a POS troll.
He probably found your info online through a data broker. Everyone’s info is pretty available on any search engine…
I had a similar situation once. I signed up for Optery to try to delete all of my info. It worked. Also, keep in mind that you can be tracked via family. So you might delete your data, but some of your info may still be available if they’re able to look up any family members.
This also works in reverse though! If you have any of his info, you can look him up on various data broker sites.
Also, I invested in an alarm system, cameras to sleep better at night. Slept with my phone near and I bought some pepper spray and a bat.
it’s a pretty bad idea to have a political argument on Facebook, especially with your real name and photograph right next to what you’re saying
I think OP probably understands that now, this isn’t thst helpful considering the position they’re currently in
⬆️ This is what having nothing to add to a conversation and being a fucking prick look like
Sorry man, that’s freaky. Dude sounds unhinged. What info do you have on him from Facebook? The info he says he has on you - how much did he actually prove by stating it? Could be that he just got the minimum info and is making the most of it to make it sound like he knows a lot more.
When you spoke to him, what kind of accent did he have? Did he sound local?
Can I ask how you know it was him calling your wife? How were you guys able to block his number without being able to view it?
Sounded like a middle aged Trump voter. Profile on Facebook was an anonymous account. Here is the account.
https://www.facebook.com/share/17tf1oeG8S/
Because she would get a call on her phone and then he would call our home phone, both came up anonymous, she said she spoke once and asked for me he said his name was the name from the account.
Info was my wife and daughters name. He has my wife’s phone number somehow, and our home phone. He said he had our address but didn’t say it. However wouldn’t be hard to find, live in a really small town.
I don’t have a Facebook, so I can’t look at his account, but the *69 (or *67?) features still work to make anonymous calls, and he probably googled your wife’s name which may have had a public post or mentioning a daughter’s name, or through friends. It doesn’t take long but going down those rabbit holes is ready, and finding info is easy.
Plenty of free sites or apps let you dig up more on people by name, too. That’ll be a good start… However, since they’re already a problem and have a head start, I suggest you just let it go, keep the police report (did you mention the threat to kill?) and maybe follow up. Document all calls even though anonymous, and maybe check if your carrier can block all unknown calls incoming. Don’t get them more riled up than they already are, and hopefully you have sensible home protection (minimum a gun-that you’re familiar with how to use)
No home protection. Have a shotgun and.a baseball bat. Live next to inlaws but now worry about daughter coming home from school and hour by herself.
I think the name they used on Facebook is 100% made up.
The *67 77 whatever all require a actual home phone service. We just the basic version Kinect supplies with net
Never use your real name online, haven’t you learned from creating your first internet account?
Maybe some video doorbell or ext cameras? I know how living in a rural area makes it all feel a bit overkill, but might be worth it for situations like this. I buy off brand cameras where I can pop an SD card in it and it’s free. I installed systems for all family when 2020 got with COVID and the riots over George Floyd and whatnot. We’re in Illinois, rural outside Chicago but still affected. We have a lot of crime come out from Chicago too which sucks as people go around through vehicles all over. I’m also a big tech guy so this was simple enough.
People are too trusting to leave cars unlocked, or too stupid saying locking their door adds a broken window to the lost of things to fix when broken into. However, I reiterate insurance claims and police reports don’t look good when stuff is unsecured.
I’m also a big tech guy
Well you’ll be happy to know that we don’t body shame here.
We will however relentlessly mock you if you use Windows 11.
Web search finds some Facebook resources:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=report+threat+on+facebook
If you have to do crap like keep a bat next to your bed, you’ve somewhat already lost.
Yeah bro, america has lost. That happened a couple years ago. It hasnt been safe for minorities or lgbt for quite some time.
I’m sorry to hear you’re dealing with an unhinged lunatic, and I’m frustrated on your behalf that the police won’t do anything. Ironically, you could call the police, threaten to kill their family, and you’ll be picked up for free and taken to a safe place the lunatic can’t get at you
I’d start by identifying what he actually knows. He’s proven he has obtained your names, phone numbers, and probably that you live in Nebraska; which is scary enough, but not enough to find you and cause harm.
Search for your names and phone numbers using multiple search engines. I would look for addresses, or places of work. If he can find out where you work, it makes it much easier for an adversary to find you. An easy place to check is LinkedIn. If there is a connection with your names and where you work, I’d speak with someone at work. Tell them you have a stalker and:
- Ensure any customer support agents are aware they are NEVER to provide personal information about employees, EVEN IF IT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR BOSS ON THE PHONE. KnowB4 has some good training resources (not sponsored)
- To inform you if anyone has requested you / your family’s information.
Next time he calls, you can ask him for your address. He’s been pretty up front about the knowledge he has so far, so check his homework and see how far he’s gotten. That will give you an idea if he can actually attack now, or attack later. If he doesn’t know your address / where you work, it doesn’t mean he can’t find out later. I’d also suggest to not lead with (do you know where I work?) as it will give him an idea; but maybe ask him how he plans on killing you? Gruesome, but it’ll let him blab. Maybe ask a friend to do this so you’re not up all night thinking about it.
On the protection side: Unfortunately if the police isn’t willing to help, you’ll have to take matters into your own hands. Idk what the firearm laws are like in Nebraska, but you might want to look into it for self defence. I cant answer legal questions, but I’m more than happy to talk about firearms
Do some of your own counter-intelligence yourself. Look up the guys name, email, phone number; whatever you can get (I wasn’t able to look at the Facebook profile). Build a profile against him. Might help next time you contact the police. Also, write it down somewhere and take screenshots. If he knows you’re onto him, he could delete his accounts.
Finally, speak with a lawyer. They may be able to offer additional advice and bully the courts / police into getting off their asses and helping you more
I’m sorry I can’t do more to help but offer advice and answer questions
Good luck
This is 100% just a troll. He’s not going to do anything physically. If you don’t have your profile locked down, it would be fairly easy to find very basic information about you. As far as what you can do, you can report the profile to Facebook. You can report the profile to IC3 as was recommended. Or you can try to dig into him. His profile is pretty locked down, but there are ways that you could try to get information if you dig far enough. He called you so you should have something.
I really have nothing to go on besides that profile which I’ve blocked.
Like I said he’s called numerous times but it comes up anonymous but yet somehow my wife has it blocked which leads me to believe he’s just using *69
Home phone just says anonymous as well but no way to block
Have you asked your phone provider or tried doing*67 or whatever yourself? I’ve heard there’s apps that claim to be able to unhide a number as well but I’m not familiar with them and can’t speak for how true that is.
